Manxies and Sedge Warblers

The prolonged spell of unsettled weather has brought our migration monitoring to a standstill.

Sedge Warbler total for this autumn season is up on last year... looking at numbers for the Teifi Marshes since the beginning of July we have ringed 560 Sedge Warblers, 282 Reed Warblers, 29 Cetti's Warblers and 4 Grasshopper Warblers. A more detailed look at the migration season across all sites in a later blog.

The map shows the movements of Sedge Warblers so far this autumn season with a general trend of SW to us and SE away from the Teifi and Cors Caron to the south coast.

Sedge Warbler BHH6237 Teifi Marshes, Ceredigion 06/08/2025

Carey Floodplain, Dorset 11/08/2025 5 days 232km SE Stour RG

Sedge Warbler  BHH6083 Teifi Marshes, Ceredigion 02/08/2025

Durlston Country Park 03/08/2025 1 day 249km SE Stour RG

Sedge Warbler  BZF3435 Cors Caron, Tregaron 08/08/2025

Carey Floodplain, Dorset 22/08/2025 14 days 212km SE Stour RG

Some of the group have been involved with ringing Manx Shearwaters stranded on land by stormy weather. Manx Shearwater Rescue in Pembrokeshire rescued over 500. Shane helped ring and release some of these with Pembs Ringing Group. 

Sea Trust in Fishguard also helped with stranded birds, particularly in the ferry port. These were ringed before released (at sea) led by Richard. 

This bird was found in a garden in Cilgerran (photo - Liz)

Ringing of these birds is important because in the future they might be found breeding on Skomer or Skokholm. Pembs RG have just had a report of a bird rescued and released on Freshwater West beach in 2011 and  found breeding on Skomer this year

(Wendy J and Rich D) 

Early migration and key species

Over the last 4 weeks 487 Sedge and 188 Reed Warblers have been ringed. A minimum, but showing the scale and importance of the Teifi Marshes Reserve. Not only for breeding but also for feeding as they journey south to Africa.

Adult Sedge Warbler

Recoveries from our current ringing has produced the following movements...

Reed Warbler  BKB3696

Ringed Teifi Marshes 9th July Re-encountered Seaton Wetlands, Devon 3rd Aug 25 days 187km

Reed Warbler BDE0787

Ringed Llangorse Lake 9th July Re-encountered Teifi Marshes 25th July 16 days 96km WNW

Sedge Warbler BCD5915

Ringed Stanford Resvr 25th July Re-encountered Teifi Marshes 2nd Aug 8 days 243km W

Sedge Warbler BHF2581

Ringed Warrington 12th July Re-encountered Teifi Marshes 6th Aug 25 days 195km SW

Early season movements to and from the Teifi Marshes

Birds captured from the Teifi Marshes and other TRG sites are shown in the table below..

Linnets are from the Lleine RAS study site, Willow Tit and Whinchat are from Cors Caron- not all species are listed, but are included in the totals..

The post above is a snapshot of the late July - early August ringing this year. A very good spell for warblers in particular the acros. One of the best early autumn's totals and we look forward to the following weeks - a very good breeding season... or an early migration....

(Rich D and Wendy J)

Andrew Hughes remembered

Following diagnosis and treatment for cancer over the last year, Andrew passed away peacefully at home on the 29th June 2025.

Andrew was inspired to seek a ringing trainer after observing the ringing of seabirds on his beloved Skomer.  He joined the Teifi Ringing Group in 2014 and his many activities with the Group have been posted on these pages. Andrew also helped other South Wales based ringers over the years.

His particular legacy with the Teifi Ringing Group is work with nesting Dippers.

Andrew in action at one of his favourite bridges and river..

Andrew joined us on several national and overseas ringing trips including Skokholm, Portland, Gibraltar and South Africa..

Andrew in South Africa with us enjoying the sunset looking towards Botswana and Zimbabwe - listening to Elephants and Lions...

Storm Petrels...an update.

We have likely finished our catching season at Strumble Head, hoping several more movements to make their way through the system, including some from sites still catching.

We have held demonstrations for both The Sea Trust Marine Biology Group and the Pembs Bird Group, both nights being well received and supported.  We look forward to supporting both Groups in 2026 too.

Photo Stephen Hyam

With 109 new Storm Petrels ringed (150 in 2024), 6 birds caught wearing rings from elsewhere and a good season so far with  14 of our Stormies recovered elsewhere. Below a few more movements not previously posted. 

Storm Petrel

2785664 Skokholm Island 04/08/2024 Strumble Head 19/06/2025 319 days 40km NNE

2357040 Calf of Man  24/07/2024 Calf of Man 29/06/2025 340 days 225km S

2788749 Strumble Head 30/06/2025 Galley Head, Cork 09/07/2025 9 days 271km W

2788723 Strumble Head 29/06/2025 Skokholm Island 19/07/2025 20 days 40km SSW

2788757 Strumble Head 13/07/2025 Skokholm Island 19/07/2025 6 days 40km SSW

2787351 Strumble Head 21/06/2025 St Justinians 18/07/2025 27 days 23km SW

2739409 Strumble Head 17/07/2023 Skokholm Island 19/07/2025 733 days 40km SSW Also caught on Skokholm twice in 2023 on 19th July and 7th August

2787335 Strumble Head 11/08/2024 Porthgwarra, Cornwall 11/07/2025 334 days 224km SSW West Cornwall RG

2788737 Strumble Head 30/06/2025 Cape Clear, Cork 25/07/2025 25 days 312km W

2797269 Little Saltee, Wexford 13/06/2025 Strumble Head 29/07/2025 46 days 104 km E D Manley

Of greater interest...these Storm Petrels with multiple encounters...

The most recent movements include 5 different Storm Petrels to Bardsey and 1 to Lundy.

Most of the Group visit Skokholm to assist the catching there, but with increasing skills within the Group we continue to develop our mainland ringing...

(Rich D and Wendy J)

Storm Petrels and early breeding results

Mid June saw the start of our Storm Petrel ringing at Strumble. Over two nights we handled 18 birds, one of which had been ringed on Skokholm last August.

Storm Petrel - Anna W

Around 20 children and their parents from the The Marine Biology club run by The Sea Trust joined us on the 20th. All enjoyed learning about Storm Petrels and seeing them in the hand. Thanks to Anna Webberley for arranging the visit.

We were once again joined by Stephen Hyam who is documenting our ringing activities with photos

We had news via Social Media this week that one of the Storm Petrels ringed last August at Strumble had been re-encountered in Portugal. This bird was caught last week by Dr Rob Thomas on the annual storm-petrels in Portugal project (established in 1990) that he runs.

Rob Thomas on BSKY 

On the Teifi Marshes, juveniles of several species have now been ringed including the first 5 Reed and 3 Cetti's Warblers. Adult Reed Warblers were still migrating through the reserve at the beginning of the month including one that had been ringed in N Ireland in 2024.

Reed Warbler

BRD9567 Belfast Harbour, N Ireland 31/08/2024 Teifi Marshes, Ceredigion 02/06/2025 275 days 292km S Cossey

Returning Reed Warblers from previous years for our RAS project are now up to 31 which is lower than the usual expected number for late June.

Six CES sessions have now been completed in Llechryd. The Garden CES there has been running since 2020. 

Juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker

So far this season it is apparent that there are more juveniles of resident species. Comparing a couple of species with the same stage last year..

                                                          2024            2025

Great Spotted Woodpecker                  1                  6

Great Tit                                               10               40

Blue Tit                                                16               53

Of the migrant Warblers, Blackcaps and Garden Warbler are down but Chiffchaffs are up.

The other major work continuing is the Whoosh netting of Linnets for a RAS project.

Over the next few weeks major effort in the reedbed sites (Reed Warbler and Reed Bunting RAS), migration monitoring as the Sedge Warblers in particular start moving.

CES continuing at Cors Caron and Llechryd.

(Wendy J and Rich D)

Recoveries and Reedbed arrivals

Sedge Warblers, are mostly on migration not local breeders, and numbers peaked in the third week of April. Because of the good weather, frequent migration monitoring sessions were possible this year with 266 new ringed, with retraps - 1 from 2023, 1 from 2024. No large falls occurred so not a spring for big days in the reed beds. Controls with rings from France (2), Guernsey and UK.

Reed Warbler  RAS. Our returning birds were-  1 from 2019,  2 from 2022, 4 from 2023 and 11 from 2024. Also 34 new Reed Warblers up to the 26th. We would expect at least 30 from previous years but a good start. We usually find a second wave of arrivals in early June.

Ringed Reed Warbler at Mallard pond - Stuart Hall

Always an eye opener to our new ringers and followers - the difference in the numbers as shown above, breeders and migrants between the two acro species. 

Reed Bunting RAS starts on 1st April. Since then, 12 Reed Buntings have been re-encountered, either caught or identified by colour rings. The oldest was ringed in 2018. We have re-encountered a further 25 this year pre the RAS period.

Most ringing sites are now up and running for this year's monitoring, some early results in the next blogs...

Recent movements.....

Bullfinch  BXA1283

Ringed Llangorse Lake   31/10/2024

Re-encountered Llanfair Clydogau  18/04/2025 178 days 55km WNW Llangorse Lake RG

Two Sedge Warblers re-encountered 2 days apart at Mallard reed bed had been ringed 5 days apart on the same reserve in France last August

9556160 Réserve du Massereau, Loire-Atlantique 06/08/2024 Teifi Marshes, Ceredigion 22/04/2024 259 days 572km NNW

9520121 Reserve du Migron, Loire-Atlantique 01/08/2024 Teifi Marshes, Ceredigion 20/04/2024 262 days 570km NNW

Sedge Warbler  AE88797

Ringed La Rochelle, Guernsey 06/05/2024

Re-encountered Teifi Marshes, Ceredigion 01/05/2025 360 days 326km NNW

Woodcock EV02084

Ringed Ffarmers, Carmarthenshire 21/02/2025

Hunted  Moscow Oblast, Russian Federation 13/04/2025 51 days 2657km E

Pied Flycatcher AJX6071

Ringed in the nest Sunnyhill Wood, Tregaron 1/06/2023  

Adult female on the nest Cwm Clettwr, Tre'r Ddol 04/05/2025 703 days 32km N Mid Wales RG

May started with a dry warm two weeks which should have helped our breeding species. Since then we have had windy weather with some heavy rain - no doubt unhelpful to some species.

Juveniles of eight species have already been ringed... Robin, Siskin, Dunnock, House Sparrow, Long-tailed Tit, Blue Tit, Goldfinch and Chaffinch. Dippers have fledged from boxes and Pied Flycatchers won't be long.

Recently fledged House Sparrow

A busy couple of weeks ahead for those of the group with nest box projects.

(Rich D and Wendy J)

Mid April migration....

Mid April has historically been the peak of White Wagtail migration through the Teifi Marshes. Roosts have been small this year with a maximum of 50 seen but 62 have been ringed. This is the second highest number since we started targeting them in 2014.

White Wagtail

While waiting for the Wagtails to roost we have enjoyed the spectacle of a few hundred hirundines, mostly Sand Martins at dusk. These usually flock together then spiral higher and higher and leave before it is dark. However one evening they dropped into the marsh and an unprecedented 30 Sand Martins were ringed.

Waiting for Wagtails -photo MH

The reed beds are getting busier at dawn too. Since the first Sedge Warbler on the 17th, 135 have been caught (up to the 24th) including one with a French ring and one ringed in Wiltshire. An unprecedented number this early, we usually see peak migration early May - and still expect too.

Sedge Warbler - WJ

Sedge Warbler  AFZ6861

Ringed  Langford Lakes 15/08/2022

Re-encountered  Teifi Marshes, Ceredigion 11/04/2025 981 days 214km WNW West Wilts RG

The first returning Reed Warblers too with six up to the 24th. The oldest was ringed in 2019.

With ringing at three sites across the Teifi Marshes this April  we encounter variety, not just reed bed species. The Pentood marsh site with reed bed and woodland edge is back in action with a good number of Sedge Warblers, Cetti's Warblers  and Chiffchaffs on the first session. At the drier river viewpoint site also passage Sedge Warblers and Willow Warblers, Blackcaps and returning Chiffchaffs last week. Both sites complement the wetter Mallard reedbed site.   Interesting that all three sites ringed Whitethroats, not a regular species on the Marshes.

Whitethroat - photo JDB

Following a trial run of a CES at Cors Caron last year, the site is ready for the season ahead.

The nesting season for Dippers starts early. The group monitors boxes at various locations in Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire. The first chicks have been ringed, a couple of adult re-encounters from last year and new adults. 

Ellyn monitoring Dipper nests - photo JDB

A typical movement and reason for recovery for one of the 221 Woodcock handled by us in 2024

Woodcock     EM78703

Ringed  Ffarmers, Carms 02/02/2024

Shot  Gnezdilvo, Ivanovo O, Russian Federation 17/04/2025 439 days 2961km E

A good start to our migration monitoring on the Marshes, the next couple of weeks up to c 10th May should produce more migrant ringing.

Then we focus on the monitoring of  breeding species, CES, RAS studies and nestboxes...

(Wendy J and Rich D)